and swish
by pipecleanerFlowers
Summary: Miwa's a third year who's new to the basketball club at Hitsue High, but he sure doesn't play like a beginner. Kai's confused, and maybe a little interested. But only a little. High School Basketball AU, KaiMiwa.
1. Chapter 1

**a/n: you guys can completely blame _iciiing_ for this trainwreck. a high school basketball au that has nothing to do with high school musical and has references to kuroko no basuke. enjoy!**

* * *

Kai paces across the lineup of hopefuls, judging each nervous face and hearing each name as he passes. The only one that sticks out at him is a blonde who grins at him and throws out a V-sign before announcing himself as "Miwa Taishi, sir!" and he is… good. Droplets of sweat roll down his face. Wasn't he tired? The rest are panting, sweaty messes. Miwa seems to be the most energetic of them all after a rigorous try-out.

"Nice to meet you," Kai mutters in response as he had for every other potential player, trying to ignore the way his next step hesitates. His grin is a little disarming. He vaguely recognizes him from his English class and wonders why he hadn't bothered to try out until now.

When he finishes with the introductions - with no useless "and say something about yourself" because what was the point in those if they were all here for basketball anyway? - he rejoins the vice-captain, the red-headed Ren, at the centre of the court.

"So, any of them impress the great Kai?" Ren asks, rolling back his shoulders as he givea Kai a smirk. "Or do you want to move on without cuts?"

"That's funny," Kai says dryly. "We're cutting half at least from the potential starting lineup." He watches as the line scatters and talks amongst themselves. There is a murmur of stilted conversation, mostly worried, some a little overconfident. _Won't it be a surprise when they're cut…_

"Make that more than half. The blondie was good though. And Tetsu's getting a spot," Ren says..

"Obviously."

"Everyone's so obsessed with being forward that they forget defense. Tetsu's a fucking wall."

"Mhm."

"Who's caught your eye, Mr. Unresponsive?"

Kai could see Ren smirk at him again from the corner of his eye. He rolls his eyes.

"No one. Dismiss them, tell them we'll see them tomorrow. The final list of regulars will be up Friday morning."

"Whatever you say."

Kai walks off the court, thinking about his homework for the night, the disarming blonde already slipping from his thoughts.

-:~:-

Practice the next day is more intense than ever. Ren's already whispering to Tetsu that he's back on the team, but that's been relatively obvious to everyone who tried getting past him yesterday. (Maybe the players are bad. Conversely, aybe Tetsu is just that good.)

"Don't get cocky, Tetsu," Kai says, hand on the bigger guy's shoulder. "You'll never block me."

"Who's the one being cocky now, Kai?" Tetsu throws back. Kai smirks.

Ren's directing them in a line to start trying shots against the ones who are interested in being shooting guards, which is really just Tetsu and a rowdy ninth grader named Kamui (who Kai thinks is short enough to maybe be a point guard, but not much else) who has signed up for every other position as well.

"Alright, try to get past Tetsu and score," Kai instructs as the line settles down. "Impress me."

It is a well-known fact for the basketball fans within the student body that Kai is literally the only one who can get past Tetsu. Maybe Ren on a particularly good day. This holds true for the first six boys who attempt to break down Tetsu's wall. However, the blonde kid has a different outcome.

He's a tricky dribbler. Flashy. And he's smiling again, that same disarming grin like he knows something Kai doesn't. Like he can actually get past the brick wall that is Tetsu's iron defense.

He dribbles the ball for a bit, lowering his stance before throwing it to the left. Kai is halfway through the thought "_that's not going to work_" when Miwa fakes, catches it far out, and spins over to Tetsu's right side. He shoots and it swishes through the net, only to widen his grin.

The gym falls silent.

"Impressive enough?" Miwa asks slyly as he passes Kai and Ren on the way back to the bench.

"Took too long," Kai responds impassively. "I'd have done it in three seconds, not ten."

-:~:-

It doesn't take long for Ren to figure out Kai's the one who's not paying attention this time around. Off the court, Ren's an airhead. Normally he's the one dozing off in class and asking to borrow notes later, but Kai is slumping and Ren is curious and about five taps of the eraser end of his colourful polka-dotted mechanical pencil later, Kai straightens up, turns around, and glares at him with half-dazed eyes.

"What the hell do you want?" he whispers, and maybe it's the volume he's at because their teacher is still lecturing, or the fact that he just woke up, but it distinctly lacks the angry note that's usually there.

Ren shrugs in response, a lazy smile playing on his lips. "Distracted much?" he asks, and Kai snorts and turns to face the front to see the blackboard covered in chalk.

He pauses, looks down at his notebook, and mentally curses. He turns back around.

"Borrow your notes?"

"I got your back."

When the bell rings, Ren whistles innocently as he hands over his notebook to a tired and grumpy Kai. Yep, there really were first times for everything!

-:~:-

Tryouts are one week long.

It's the end of the third day, and Kai is already drained. He hadn't done too much other than some dribble exercises and _ before hitting the showers. The short kid, Kamui, did a lot better with those than he did with defense (though he _did_ manage to tap the ball out of a few hands before they could even attempt a shot, and hell if that wasn't the tiniest bit impressive for such a runt of a kid). He wasn't nearly as flashy as Miwa though, who didn't just bust through the pylons like the exercise dictated, but moved so gracefully with twists and turns through them that Kai wasn't sure he was even watching a zig-zagged dribble. Watching him was… exhausting. _Where'd he learn to play like that and why hasn't he ever tried out before?_

The basketball club is one that anyone could join, but Kai likes their school's tradition of switching the regulars up based on talent and skill rather than seniority. That's why the tryouts are so imperative - they decide who gets spots on the regulars line-up and who is delegated to front row seats on the bench, after all. Even if Kamui ends up being a dud (he tries so hard, it would be a damn shame, thinks Kai while shoving away the grudging flicker of respect) he'd still be in the club and participate in practice and follow the menus set up by their coach. So it isn't like Miwa would be booted off, either; anyone can have a spot in the club.

It still perplexes the hell out of Kai. He throws a towel over his head after drying himself off and tossing his clothes on, stepping out of the shower stall and back into the changing rooms where Miwa's talking animatedly to a stoic Tetsu about something.

Yeah, he's an anomaly all right.

Ren slaps him on the back as he passes. "You alright there Kai? You seem a bit… struck."

"I assure you I'm not."

"Sure?" Ren asks, elongating the single syllable into an obnoxious whine.

"Get out of here, Ren."

Ren diligently does so with a salute before ducking out the door. Kai sighs heavily, already exhausted at the thought of dealing with both this week and whatever their coach and manager are cooking up for their training menu.

_Come to think of it, where the hell is Shin?_

Kai glances over to the corner where Miwa's still packing up his stuff, tying his shoelaces while humming. It's too late to ask Ren, as he's already out the door; Tetsu is leaving too, no doubt trailing him. They've always been closer friends.

Kai sighs again before grabbing his duffel bag from the benches and leaving too.

-:~:-

Maybe it's because his legs still hurt (and they shouldn't, but he didn't bother stretching and warming-up before practice so this is his own damn fault), and he's definitely more than okay with blaming his own stupidity than blaming it on anything to do with that baffling blonde prodigy soon to be joining their ranks, but he ends up laying down on one of the park benches on his walk home. The walk is normally refreshing and nice, especially on sunny days, but nope. Not today. Definitely not today. His legs ache, his muscles ache, and he kind of hates himself the minutest bit.

And he's exhausted, sue him.

So… he kinda… well, he falls asleep. On the bench. No big.

He doesn't know how long it's been, but there's a tap on his shoulder and his eyes flutter open just like they had during English class earlier with Ren, except this time it's-

"Miwa?"

"Hey!"

Kai sits up and Miwa moves away just in time for their heads to not totally clash in pain. "The hell are you doing here?"

"I walk this way home every day!"

_Better question. Why have I never noticed this?_

"Oh," he replies eloquently, and Miwa laughs as he takes the spot on the bench next to Kai's feet.

"So, you sleep here often?"

If Kai was that kind of high schooler, he'd blush and deny it. However, he is most definitely not that kind of high schooler, so he responds with a flat "No" and an even more deadpan face and Miwa bursts into laughter again.

The bench is an old one, weathered with use. And maybe Kai had messily engraved his name on it once during middle school with his house key because he kind of liked this bench a lot. It was his. It had a good view of the fountain. Stuff.

But hell no, he did _not_ come here often. God, Miwa.

"What's this then?" Miwa asks, tracing the outline of the kanji Kai had so long ago scratched into the wood.

This time Kai has the dignity to look away in case he does actually blush. He's tired, he just got up, he's not entirely at the height of his wits at the moment.

"Nothing," says Kai, in much the same tone as one would say "Bite me" because both of them know exactly what it is, and wow, that sure is embarrassing.

"Hey, tell you what, you come to the card shop with me and we'll call it even."

"You won't speak a word of this in front of the team."

"Deal. Shake on it?"

Miwa holds his hand out enthusiastically. Kai grabs it for a moment.

"Deal."


	2. Chapter 2

**a/n: so it only took forever for me to actually post this since this chapter was done long ago! I'm really sorry! I just kept forgetting to actually post it, hope you'll forgive the lateness and that the contents of this crazy chapter will be amusing enough to make up for the wait :)**

* * *

The card shop is surprisingly packed. Kai walks in a little behind Miwa and stares at all the people buying booster packs, trading cards, duelling…

"What do you play?" Kai asks as he remembers the stack of cards he keeps on his desk even though he hasn't touched them since elementary school at least. Ren and Tetsu used to play too, but only on rainy days when they didn't have access to a court. What was it called…

"Vanguard. It's the most fun, I think. Faster paced than some of the others, though there's no official shop tournaments for it since the popularity died out a little while ago," Miwa says a little wistfully.

"I used to play too."

"Really? Do you still have your deck? What did you run?"

"Kageros."

"I run those too! What did you run as your ace? I've been switching between Dragonic Overlord and Dragon Monk Goku."

"I don't remember, to be honest." The first name seemed familiar, but all he really remembered is that he usually won against both Ren and Tetsu. Then again, he usually won in most of the things they did together.

Miwa shrugs. "Can't be helped. A lot of people dropped the game, but there's a decent following here. Anyway, I'm just here for some of the new boosters, I'll only be a sec!"

Kai watches Miwa bound around the shop picking up "two of those, three of these, oh my god you got the TD13 in, can you put that on hold till my next paycheque?" The entire process makes Miwa seems like a child, something he's definitely not when he's shooting hoops and grinning like he knows something Kai doesn't. Kai looks away, staring out the window into the street. This was so surreal.

"Alright I'm all cashed out, let's go!" Miwa says, shoving Kai out the automatic doors, a bag full of cards held tightly in his hand. "Did you want to get something to eat? I'm starving after that practice."

Kai wants to say no, but he vaguely remembers that there's no food left in his fridge at home and yeah okay, he is really hungry… "Sure," he hears himself saying before he's even made the conscious decision. "Where do you want to go?"

-:~:-

Three taps of a green-and-pink striped pen on Kai's shoulder wakes him to the world of school, where he is sitting at his desk staring at the blackboard and not seeing it at all. Ren snickers from the seat behind him and Kai grimaces. He can't help it: Ren somehow found out about his little outing with Miwa the night before and basically his efforts to avoid blackmail were shot when word reached Ren's ears.

And… well, if truth be told, Kai really enjoyed his time with Miwa. They ended up, after a massive debate whether to do fast food or not that ended quickly when Miwa smelled karaage, going to a stall at the local market. Miwa bought two boxes of karaage and Kai got a container of takoyaki. They sat on the benches outside under the lanterns that came on one by one around sunset and ate and talked and laughed (or, well, Miwa laughed. Kai kept secretly smiling to himself). Soon it was nearly nine at night and Miwa described his boatload of homework to Kai before jetting off in the direction of his house. Apparently he lived in the neighborhood on the other side of the market.

That wasn't too far from where Kai lived, on the side of the market they entered from and then a couple streets away.

Why hadn't Kai ever noticed this before?

"Sleepy, Kai?" Ren's teasing voice asks as Kai suppresses a yawn with the back of his hand.

"Not particularly," Kai says, though he's lying if he says he didn't get much sleep last night, too busy trying to remember how many teeth he counted whenever Miwa grinned at him and the exact pitch of his laugh.

"So is he a good kisser?" Ren whispers.

Kai fights the urge to whip around and stomp on his feet, the same feet that keep knocking into his chair and shaking his whole stupid desk and making any of the notes he actually takes when his brain decides to pay attention messy enough that he can't even read them.

"I don't know, maybe you should ask him," Kai says. They're honestly lucky that their teacher assigned them seats in the back corner.

"Maybe I will."

"Please, you're hardly gay. I don't even know if he is."

"Well let's find out. He does wear that pink hoodie a lot…" Ren taunts.

"Only real men wear pink," Kai rattles off. "Pay attention, Ren, or we'll both have shitty notes."

And maybe it's because Ren's looked at his notes and realized that he's about two chalkboards behind on this lengthy explanation of atoms, but he shuts up until the bell rings and nudges Kai on his way out.

"So, when's your second date?"

This time, Kai nearly succeeds in tripping him.

-:~:-

Tryouts today are a lot of running around. Their coach, Shin, has finally shown up to a practice and he rewards them not only with his dorky-as-hell presence, but also with triple his usual laps around the school. Miwa laps Kai twice and Tetsu's falling behind by the sixth time around. Meanwhile, Ren's hair is as perfect as when he started, tied high up in a ponytail that swings back and forth like a pendulum. Kai wonders if it makes a nice fan and whether it's the key to his success.

Kai's hair is sticking to his forehead with unprecedented amounts of sweat, and Shin throws him a bottle of water when he starts the ninth lap. He gulps down half before throwing the rest of it over his head. By now, Miwa's passed him at least four times. He hasn't slowed down yet. Or maybe he has, but Kai hasn't been paying enough attention.

Or maybe he's been paying too much attention. God dammit.

Tetsu's out by the tenth lap. The small, shy, blue-haired kid was out by lap five. Shin may be sadistic, but he knows when to push their limits beyond what's normal, and when to stop his players from hurting themselves.

The short kid - Kamui? - on the other hand, burned himself pretty quickly, not realizing it was an exercise of endurance and not a race. He was a little endearing, in his own little loud, annoying, overenthusiastic way.

Ren still looks perfect, with a singular drop of sweat running perfectly down his face from his temple to his flushing cheek, when he completes his final fifteenth lap. Kai shoots him a glare in response to the smug smirk directed straight at him. Ren takes a bottle from Shin and downs it in one go before asking:

"Anything else you want to torture us with?"

He hardly sounds tortured. Kai wants to punch his pretty fucking face.

"Nah, you guys are free from my clutches… for now!" Shin says, pushing his thick glasses up the bridge of his nose, trying to sound evil and mostly coming off as a huge dork.

"You watch too much anime," Kai says at the same time that Ren says "You read too much manga."

They turn to each other and Kai glares at Ren's lazy smile.

"Anyway, yeah, ignore them, folks," Shin addresses the rest of the team, effectively shoving the two out of attention's way. "You can hit the showers. I'll see you all tomorrow. Except for Kai and Ren. I'll see you in the gym after you've cleaned up."

Ren giggles as they trail far behind the rest of the team.

"Got anything to say, or have you finally gone crazy?"

"You really want to know?" Ren asks slyly.

"Tell me now or I no longer care."

Ren giggles again. He sounds like a stupid schoolgirl on White Day. "He kept smiling at you."

"He smiles at everything."

"Yeah, but he'd linger on you."

"And that's supposed to mean something?"

"Kai."

"Ren."

"Kai."

"God, Ren, get to the point."

"He's gay."

"Ren."

"Yes…?" he elongates the single syllable and Kai rolls his eyes at his effort to seem completely innocent.

"You don't have any proof."

"I have a brilliant gaydar."

He says it with such a serious deadpan that Kai's not even sure if he's joking. "That's the dumbest thing I've heard you say all week."

"Gayqualia."

"Oh my fucking- just get out."


	3. Chapter 3

**a/n: can anybody tell that I have a massive crush on Shin yet or...?**

* * *

"So, who's becoming a regular?" Shin asks when Kai and Ren enter his office that's connected to the gym. "And who's on the bench?"

"We're still regulars," Ren says as they take seats opposite Shin. "And so is Tetsu. I'm point guard, Kai's power forward, Tetsu's shooting guard. We just need to decide the next two players."

"Anyone you recommend?"

"Miwa Taishi," Kai says automatically, and Ren's smirking at him again, eyes holding that insufferable look that he tries his absolute best to ignore. "He can be small forward, he's definitely versatile enough for it."

"Okay… so all we need is a centre. Any final recommendations?" Shin asks, writing all of this down on his worn cork clipboard.

"None that stuck out to me." Kai says.

Ren nods. "Me neither, but Aichi's got potential."

"Aichi? The blue-haired kid that quit at four laps?" Kai asks, and if his face had any emotion in it, it might have been incredulous.

"It was _five_," Ren corrected, "and he's done well in all the exercises."

"The pressure of an actual game would kill all of his little exercises."

"Well we'll never know until we give him a chance.

"Looks like you're the one with a crush," Kai mutters, folding his arms across his chest.

Ren has the decency to blush.

Shin watches all of this with his eternal dorky smile. "Well, we have to figure this out so I can post the list by noon tomorrow."

"Aichi can't be a centre," Kai says with finality in his voice. Ren sighs.

"Fine," he whines. "But Kamui's no better off with his height."

"I said he can't be centre. We all shift around on the field, except for you and Tetsu. Sometimes I end up centre. But Aichi can't be centre."

"What about Yahagi Kyou?" Shin asks, eyes scanning the list.

"No," Kai and Ren say simultaneously before immediately launching back into their Aichi-debate.

Shin laughs. "You guys are so in-sync with each other sometimes it's unnerving."

"You said he can't be centre, but he can be on the field. Tetsu's a good centre and since we play mainly offensive anyway, it's not a big deal if we put a throw-away member on the regulars," Ren says, and Kai nods - albeit, fairly reluctantly.

"We'll put him in on a practice match and see how it goes, but as it is he hasn't even played for a junior high team. Both Kamui and Yahagi have that over him."

"But Kamui's so _short_," Ren complains, "and _bratty_."

Kai shrugs. "He might prove useful. No one's expecting a dwarf on the court. Maybe he can be our invisible advantage."

"So you're saying a runt is better than Aichi?"

"Maybe."

"You suck."

"So… no fifth player as of yet?"

"We'll have them go one on one tomorrow," Kai says, getting up and grabbing his duffel bag. "That'll decide it."

"And no to Yahagi?"

"No," the two boys chorus, and Shin laughs again..

"Alright, alright… I'll post the list along with the match up on the gymnasium's bulletin board."

—:~:—

Kai is exhausted when he sits down in his assigned seat, and the sun pouring in through the window beside his desk is not helping, the heat like a blanket. He's just about to rest his head on his arms when Ren slides his ass onto his desk and starts swinging his feet.

"Hey Kai," he says, and even though Kai's not looking, he can feel the smirk.

"Ren," he says in basic acknowledgement.

"Where's your pretty boy? I thought he was usually earlier than us?"

Kai fights the urge to slam his head into Ren's thigh, thereby inflicting pain on him and effectively headdesking all in the same go. In actuality, Miwa was always later than them, but Kai was not going to rise to that bait.

"How am I supposed to know?"

Ren shrugs. "Maybe you're the kind that stalks his crushes."

Kai ignores this, and it totally doesn't have anything to do with the blonde who has just walked into the classroom, wearing his pink hoodie under his uniform blazer as usual. He's grinning, bobbing along to whatever music he's listening to through obnoxiously expensive bright pink headphones.

Ren whispers "gaaaaay" and Kai ignores him. Maybe his white laundry accidentally turned pink with an unexpected red item of clothing once and he just rolled with it?

It was _totally_ possible.

He stands up from his seat and Ren lets out a low whistle that Kai vehemently ignores again and picks his way across the classroom toward Miwa's seat. He's not entirely sure what he's going to say, but he's wanted to tell him about his spot on the regulars ever since he left Shin's office. It's exciting news, and who wants to push through a crowd of first years just to get a glimpse of a list anyway?

Better to let him know now.

He pokes him in the shoulder and waits for him to slide his headphones back until they're resting on his shoulders.

"Yo, Kai! What's up?" Miwa greets him like it's the easiest thing in the world.

"Hey, just wanted to let you know you have a spot on the regulars."

Miwa's grin showed exactly sixteen of his teeth. Now that could stop keeping Kai up at night.

"Really? I didn't think I would," he says, laughing.

"Don't have to be so modest, I'm pretty sure everyone knew you would."

"Heh, maybe I _am_ laying on the humble a little too much…" _What a shit._

"So, yeah. We'll be practicing team plays next week starting Monday. You know Misaki? She'll want to talk to you during practice today so she can personalize your training menu."

"Sounds good. Thanks a lot, Kai!"

The bell rings and Kai makes his way back to his seat. Ren's finally sitting in his seat instead of on Kai's desk, but it doesn't prevent him from leaning over and whispering "You're so obvious, it's painful" while their homeroom teacher starts the roll call.

—:~:—

Lunchtime, aka the time when Ren Suzugamori takes a pair of chopsticks out of his bag and steals bits of food from Kai's store-bought bento. And then proceeds to systematically eat any of the bentos girls make him (which is exactly one today because the rest have given up).

Kai swipes his chopsticks at Ren's. "You've got your own, why don't you eat them?"

"Because bento bought with your money just tastes better," Ren giggles and fakes a swoon. Kai shoots him a look and he quickly sobers up. "But you have to admit, those girls aren't my type."

"What about Asaka?"

"She's my _friend_, Kai. She's different, she makes it because she thinks I don't eat enough."

"Well considering you eat my scraps, she's not far off."

"Hey," Ren whines. "That's not completely true!"

Kai rolls his eyes. "You're pathetic."

And then, as if on cue (and it totally is because Kai's life is actually a sitcom in disguise and Ren is his laughtrack), Miwa walks back into the classroom with his lunch from the cafeteria. Kai is momentarily distracted long enough for Ren to trace the tracks of his eyes.

"Who's pathetic again?" he asks slyly as they both stare at an otherwise oblivious Miwa who's bobbing his head along to whatever is playing in his headphones. "I bet you 1000 yen that it's SNSD's Japanese album," he adds in a whisper.

"REDMAN. Or Daizystripper," Kai immediately throws back.

"You're on," Ren says before calling across the room, "Yo Miwa, whatcha listening to?"

He grins widely, turning his eyes into crescents that Kai thinks are really kind of cute… right before happily answering "Kyary Pamyu Pamyu!"

Kai feels betrayed.

Ren's eyes turn into teasing slits as they slide back to Kai. "Shut up, just shut up," Kai mutters before finishing off the last piece of his karaage. Ren smirks and steals another riceball.


End file.
